Seafloor composition and Holocene sediment dynamics on the Canadian Arctic continental margins

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Projections of future climate change suggest that the high-latitude regions will experience greater environmental fluctuations than the rest of the world. However, to view these environmental changes from a long-term historical perspective and to provide a more comprehensive dataset for future Arctic climate simulations, we need to better understand the historical evolution of marine Arctic Canada through the late Quaternary and its past response to abrupt climate variations. In this context, this interdisciplinary proposal, at the forefront of Arctic marine geology and paleoclimate research, aims to: 1) acquire a fundamental understanding of the nature and origin of seafloor sediments in the central part of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago or CAA (i.e. area from the Canadian Beaufort Sea to the Lancaster Sound); 2) assess the impacts of late Holocene climate variability (Medieval Warm Period, Little Ice Age, and recent warming) on the sediment dynamics within the central part of the CAA; 3) document the response of marine-terminating outlet glaciers draining the Baffin (Penny) and Ellesmere (Sydkap, Manson, Eugenie and Ekblaw) Island icecaps to changing ocean and climatic conditions during the Holocene; and 4) reconstruct the fluvial sedimentary regimes of North American Arctic rivers draining into the Coronation and Queen Maud Gulfs in relationship to changing climatic boundary conditions during the Holocene. These ambitious goals will be addressed by using a holistic source-to-sink analysis, including grain size, quantitative mineralogy, elemental geochemistry, dinocyst assemblages and magnetic parameters, on a unique set of surface and high-resolution (0.08-0.30 cm/yr) core sediments distributed across a large quasi-unexplored area within the CAA. This proposal aims also to obtain supplementary funds from northern research supplements program to cover the high costs involved with sediment sample collection in the Arctic and to performed outreach activities in Inuit communities of Arctic Bay, Cambridge Bay, and Ulukhaktok. Overall, the proposed cutting-edge research program will provide a remarkable multiproxy dataset that will contribute to the fundamental advancement of our current critical understanding of sedimentation processes under varying climate conditions in the Canadian Arctic continental margins over decadal, centennial, and millennial timescales. From an environmental perspective, the proposed research will also provide baseline geochemical data for coastal surface sediments close to several Inuit communities, which will help federal government agencies (e.g., Environment and Climate Change Canada, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada) with assessing environmental risk and setting regulatory levels of pollutants in these coastal areas. Finally, the proposed research program will contribute to the training of 5 BSc/2 MSc/3 PhD students in the fields of marine geology, paleoclimatology, and environmental sciences.